Anna had not gotten me a gift.

She had gotten me eight of them.

The problem was that what she presented as my presents had already been mine, and I had not been particularly fond of them in the first place.

Still wrapped in nothing but my towels, the closet was much colder than the rest of the chilly room.

Anna stepped past me and snapped the lights on before holding her hands up to where all of my unworn uniforms hung. "What do you think?"

"You promised me that nothing was wrong with you," I sighed, covering my face with my hands. "Your mind, what has happened to it?"

"What?" She asked aloud, obvious confusion in her voice.

I met her eyes and placed my hands on her shoulders. "Anna. Those are my uniforms. They were already mine. You must have just gotten confused."

She smacked her forehead with her palm and sighed. "No, dummy. Feel them."

She took my hand and raised it towards one of the blue silk dresses. I tried to snatch it away, but I was exhausted and she had caught me off guard.

"I don't know if I should be insulted because you thought I'd gone crazy, or if I should be grateful you took it so well." She said as she brushed my skin against the horrid silk.

I took a sharp inhale in preparation for my skin to crawl, but it never did.

The blue silk dress was not horrid at all.

It did not slip effortlessly through my finger or feel slick despite not being wet.

I did not want to rip them from their hangers and throw them into the fire alongside Tana's finger green dress because they were not silk at all.

They were blue, they were still dresses, but they were no longer silk.

"There you go. I knew you would get it." Anna said, evidently seeing the recognition spreading across my face.

To where she had forced my first hand to it, I brought the other and took one of the dresses to my cheek. All I could do was stand in disbelief with an open mouthed smile. They felt like the same material that my old white maiden's dresses had been made out of, but they looked identical to what I had been given after I had become a new moon.

"How did you. . ." I trailed off, unable to finish my question because of how light I felt on my feet. If I became even a hair happier, I would float up towards the ceiling like I was with Taloo again.

"I didn't. There is a tailor in Hymneth that did. You would have had them a few weeks ago, but I had to make sure the color was a perfect match. I was worried that people would be able to tell, but you couldn't, so I think she got it right." Anna corrected me.

I threw my arms around her. Then, I took one of the dresses back in my hands. Then, I hugged Anna again before dropping my towels and pulling the dress of its hanger and over my head in one quick movement. Then, again throwing my arms around her, I squeezed her as hard as I could and felt like nothing had ever been wrong, ever.

"You. . ." I trailed off again.

"No, not me," She grunted as she pried herself free of my joyful death grip. "All I did was buy them and give him the measurements. And I used your money. It was nothing."

"I have money?" I asked in surprise.

"That's probably why your mom put me in charge of it. How does it fit?" She laughed and asked.

I strode out of the closet and threw myself into movement. With every step, turn, squat, and roll I tried, my still wet hair threw lines of water across the room.

Nothing I did felt uncomfortable.

I would not have to wear The Lady in Purple's stolen tights anymore.

I would not carry a little bit of hatred for Lun everyday I had to wear my uniform anymore.

"Perfect. It fits perfect," I said as I took the hem and gave her a spin on the balls of my feet. "How does it look?"

Anna smirked as her dark eyes passed over me. "You could wear a flour sack and make it look like an evening gown. You look good, and happy. That's all I care about."

"Stop it," I waved her off and pointed at where I wanted her to be on the bed. "If you knew how much I had already cried today, you wouldn't be being this sweet. Put this on and sit. It's my turn."

"Yes, warden." She agreed with a wink.

The look of genuine excitement on her face made me feel like I floated across the floor to the end of the bed. I took the thin robe from the ground and threw it towards her before pulling the overfilled bag towards me and opening it properly.

She got dressed, pulled the robe over her pajamas, and sat cross legged with her back against the headboard like I had told her to.

"Your first gift-" I started as I reached into the bag, but I stopped myself. Benny's crystalline quills were the first thing I saw, but they shouldn't be first.

I found the two pieces of Fetti-Gami's confetti and started again. "Your first gift-"

That wasn't right either. I had not intentionally taken them from the mountaintop for her, they had been caught in my hair and I had only decided they were gifts after I had read her note. But, her roar had been one of the first things that had happened when I arrived to Silkcradle, so it made sense to start there.

My mother had taught me through all of the countless stories she had told me that if a story doesn't start in the right place, no one will stay and listen to the middle or the end.

"Your first gift," I started for the third time. "Was not a gift at all. I had nearly fallen to my death only a moment before, and before I could collect myself, a living, breathing, paper dragon flew up above the peak and roared a mighty roar."

I held my arms out wide to try and impress upon her how big he had been.

"It was not fire that rained down from its maw or anything else that you may have heard in dragon tales, it was confetti." I pulled out the two small squares of paper and pressed them into her outstretched palm.

She looked down at them with wonder in her eyes. "This is from a dragon?"

"A familiar that looks like a dragon made of paper, but close enough." I shrugged.

I did not wait for her to respond before I continued. "Your second gift is the robe you are wearing. There are hot springs on Silkcradle, and we were given those to wear on our walk to them."

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"That sounds so nice!" Anna rolled her eyes and groaned.

"I wouldn't know. I had other things to tend to," I said, not having the heart to tell her that I had missed her so much and had wanted to be around Tana so little, that I had feigned being sick so I could stay in the cabin. "The others went to the hot springs, but I stayed on the beach and stared at the moon."

"I didn't realize that I was living with a moth." Anna laughed.

"Shhh. I'm getting to the first good part," I hushed her with sudden fury. "While I was sitting calmly at the edge of the sea, a terrible black masked beast crept up behind me and took me into the air like a bird with a worm."

"Oh no." Anna gave a dramatic gasp and covered her mouth with her hands.

I paused. Real or not, I let her suspense hang in the air before I finally whispered. "That was when I met the warden."

I had to tell her about him. He was just as important when it came to her gifts as I was. I would leave out all the longing for a father he had brought out in me, and how much it had hurt to learn that he was Tana's of course. None of that had anything to do with what I was giving her.

I continued and ignored the small sadness that I still felt. "Was he friend or foe? man or beast? I didn't know, but he bargained with the demon that had taken me on my behalf. So when my feet touched the sandy ground again, I knew that I owed him a favor should he ever have need of it."

Anna had leaned back against the headboard and was watching me intently.

I did not tell her of Hexis, her temple, or the web of white fabric. I would, but not until after I got through the rest of her gifts. The cake in the fight that had been had over it remained untold as well. She did not know how much Tana and I disliked one another, but there would be far better times to tell her. I did tell her about Deebee without using his name, and the warden's invitation to work with him the following morning. I explained the thin green dress, and all that had happened with Amabura before I took a much needed breath.

"He used you as bait to manipulate a grieving familiar. Are you sure this guy is as good as you think he is?" She asked as I readied myself to tell what came next.

I shushed her again.

The palm trees and their violent fruit, the curtain of rain, Benny's desert of shell, I told her it all. That the little crystalline creature had crawled into my arms after I had first met her, and how impressed the warden had been because of that. I told her about Bruce and how I had tried to blow him apart before reaching back into the bag.

"Your third gift is why there are pearly spots on my chest. Benny has quills. Touching her is enough to charm you, but if you get stuck, the urge to protect her is overwhelming." I explained as I took out the bundle of iridescent quills.

Anna took them and set all but one on the bed in front of her. "This is what made your skin look like that?"

I nodded. "Yes, and after I pulled them out, I collected your fourth-wait, what are you doing?"

Anna took the quill and stabbed it into the top of her hand before I could stop her.

Both of us fell silent for a long moment.

Then, she looked up at me with a strange light in her eyes.

"Let's have a baby," She said without a shred of humor in her voice. "I want to do right by you, so let's get married and have a baby."

I reached over and snatched the quill out of her hand, leaving a small pearlescent spot behind. "We can't have a baby. It's impossible."

She reached out for me. "I thought someone shooting fireworks out of their hand was impossible until I met you. We will get married, figure out how to have a magical baby, and then have it."

I did not respond.

After a moment, Anna rubbed her face and shook her hand out at her side. "Yeah, that's a charm alright. Sorry, I just wanted us to match."

"I will remember what it did to you just in case I have to fool you into marriage," I laughed and brought out Bruce's stark white feather. "This is your fourth gift, a feather from the most arrogant eagle in all of chaos."

Her jaw dropped. "Really? For me? I've always wanted one of those!"

"Truly?" I asked, confused at how she had wanted something that I had not known existed before my trip.

She shook her head. "I'm just playing around, thank you for all this. It's more than I deserve."

I reached back into the bag and pulled out the round grey stone I had taken from Durath's beach. "I'm not done. This is your fifth gift."

"There is more?" She asked with actual surprise on her face.

"A lot more." I smiled.

"You don't do anything halfway do you? Keep going, I've always wanted to be showered with gifts like this." Anna said as she sat back again and waited for me to continue.

The beach, the riddles, the sphinx and its scruff, the chalice it had given me, I tried not to forget anything as we moved towards the drowning cave and what had happened inside. Anna made a show of filling the chalice with wine and drinking from it after I had told her what Durath had said about it being old. I introduced Bru, explained the climb down, and how the little shark had eaten Anna's gifts before taking another dramatic pause.

I thought it might ruin the suspense because the things that the shark had eaten were all sitting in front of her, she didn't seem to mind.

"That stupid fish! And the warden just watched this happen?" She shouted, real anger on her face.

I calmed her and rushed through until I was in Rat's nest with Deebee. The empty rumbling in my stomach had made me very aware of how long it had been since I had eaten. Without telling her how bad my accidental explosion had been, I brought out the little yellow egg before giving a short version of high tide and how I had nearly killed Bru.

"He's my favorite!" Anna cheered when I got to Deebee's jelly legged reveal of the gifts he had saved.

I showed her the yellow fruit I had traded him my werelight for.

She took the fruit and peeled it open. "This is a banana. It is important to me that you know that."

We traded taking bites until it was gone, and I could not help but think it would have been better if I had eaten it straight off the tree like Deebee had. Still, the small amount of sweet food did nothing but make my stomach growl louder.

Bru's jagged tooth came next, and I skipped everything until I got to Taloo bringing me his shell.

I would tell her about Tana and Auden when I wasn't so hungry.

She would understand.

"The black masked beast from before loped into the cabin and gave me this shell as payment for what it had done to me the night before," I counted the gifts in my mind as I searched for some conclusion that I didn't have. "Ten gifts-"

My stomach let out an empty roar that would have put Fetti-Gami to shame.

Anna scrunched her nose and threw her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up, held up a finger, and left our room without another word.

I had truly not expected anything in return for my gifts. I had collected them because she had asked me to, and giving them to her was rewarding enough.

Still, a thank you would have been nice.

She was gone long enough that I opened our door and stuck my head into the hall to look for her.

Alexei's door opened not a moment later and I was met with his white eyed stare.

Anna came back around the corner, her arms full with small white boxes, and passed him without a glance.

"Creep." She said as she walked by.

The scent of what she had returned with filled my nose, and my mouth began to water.

"I got you eight dresses. You brought me ten treasures. That's not fair," She said as she shut our door behind her and handed me one of the boxes. "Here is number nine for you."

"Fried potatoes?" I asked as I tore the top of the paper box open.

"Not just any fried potatoes. These are exactly like what the captain sells at seven columns. I took what we had left a couple weeks back and ask the cooks if they could make them. It's kind of surprising how much you can get around here if you just tell people Mother Nami sent you." She smiled.

I couldn't control myself.

I started eating by the handful, and though they weren't as good as the ones from Erosette, they were a lot closer than they had been before.

"Number ten," Anna said as she tore me away from the food and wrapped her arms around my waist. "Isn't here now, but it will be by the end of next week."

"What is it? I asked through the mouthful that I was still chewing.

"A date. A real one. In Hymneth. It's your last week of Implementation, right? We're going to celebrate. Dinner, dessert, dancing if they have that in town," She said as she spun me around. "No Mothers, no fights, just us. Will that make us even?"

Nothing I could ever do for her would make us even, but I did not feel like losing an argument, so I agreed and we sealed it with a kiss.

"Alright, where did you put those quills," she asked as she ended our embrace. "I liked the way that felt."

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